Sword Art Online- Our Struggle
by sbencare
Summary: When a couple decides to enter a big new game, it takes a twisted turn for the worst as they suddenly get trapped inside it. So, together, they must fight their way out and save everyone! 0 0 *Lost for words* thank you for the views!
1. Chapter 1, Introduction

**B/N: I know this may be sucky but this is my first time writing a story. the only experience I have in writing a story is when I roleplay. I would really love to hear your feedback though! Also, this is more of just a chapter to introduce the characters. next chapter is where the fun begins!**

 **Prologue/Chapter 1**

Our story begins with a young boy that looks to be around the age of sixteen. For some odd reason, he appears to be fighting a rather large scorpion. How strang- HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! I'M THE NARRATOR!

 _Silence_

Sorry, friend, but with all good stories, the hero must tell it. My name is Sean. And yes, that bad ass person wielding a sexy black long sword is me. But let's round back the clocks to before this whole damn death game began. It all started about 2 years ago in November of 2022.

 **November 2022, 1 hour before the launch of Sword Art Online**

"Ugh, I have been waiting in line for two fucking days! This game better be good..." I yell mentally. I was a tall, blonde boy with a pretty decent looking face (well, as descent as it gets for someone who has only had about 3 hours of sleep in two days), wearing a zipped up hoodie and In my right hand I was holding a guide book for Sword Art Online, telling the reader every little detail about the game; it was actually quite wide, imagine a dictionary and then double the width. Everyone in line was given this monstrous book and by this time I have already read it front and back and remembered every little detail in it.

I look around frantically as I wait, my girlfriend left my side a few minutes ago to go pick up breakfast; it was her turn to since I picked up dinner the night before.

"Come on, where is she? It's been like ten minu- AH!" I jump as a small, skinny girl, named Erin (my girlfriend), poked me from behind. She was much shorter so it wasn't much of a surprise that I didn't see her coming. She had medium blonde hair just like me and was wearing one of my jackets, which was ridiculously large on her and was actually very cute, and her glasses. In her hands were a bag filled with biscuits and a very large cup of coffee.

"It is right here, stop whining." She teased me and gave me the bag of biscuits.

I gasp sarcastically, "My savior!" I then proceed to stuff a biscuit in my mouth and eat it happily.

"Yeah, Yeah. Whatever." She giggles.

 _Quite a while later_

We both smiled happily as we left the _GameGo_ with two copies of Sword Art online and two NerveGear helmets, very satisfied with our purchases. We hop onto our bikes and then start pedaling back to our homes as fast as possible.

"Hey!" I yell over the sound of passing cars, "Text me when you've set yours up and I will meet you in the game!" I give one last smile and then turn onto my street, not knowing that that would be the last I see of her in the real world for quite some time.

Once I get back home, I immediately run up to my room and start hooking up the NerveGear. I didn't bother saying hello to my mom considering that it was really early and she wasn't up yet. I could hardly contain my joy as I set up the device as fast as I can.

 _10 minutes later_

I finally get it set up, already done with the calibrations as well. I put in the Sword Art Online and say the magic words, "Link Start!" then I am transported into the game where I am asked to make a login first.

I do my normal, simple login username, "Sjaer," and I enter a half-ass password. After I do that I am taken to character creation and I am blown away by the massive amount of options. I make my character look as much like me as possible, but just a bit more muscular, and I enter the game at least.

I am instantly blown away by everything. It all looks just so real. I am even more impressed by my ability to move… just… wow!

"Well, hello, Sword Art Online!" I laugh happily, not paying even a little bit of attention to the people passing by me and watching me.

Suddenly a very small person comes up behind me and pokes me in the sides, "Hey, there you are. I've been looking all over for you." The voice is familiar and upon further investigation I find out it is Erin; whose username is "Auechols."

"Hey. Are you as excited as me?" I ask practically smiling from ear to ear.

She smiles just as wide, "Yeah. Come on, let's just get started and have some fun!"

"Sounds like a plan!" I laugh.

 **A/N: Sorry for it being so short, all the good stuff starts happening in the next chapter, like I said before! so please go to the next chapter. I promise if you stay tuned it will be worth your time!**


	2. Chapter 2, The Game Begins

**Chapter 2**

 _Last time_

She smiles just as wide, "Yeah. Come on, let's just get started and have some fun!"

"Sounds like a plan!" I laugh.

 _This time_

We start running off towards the fields, me guiding the way because I am the one that read the guide book. We take a small detour though and stop by the shops. I buy some cheap, light armor and a long sword which looks a little gross. Erin buys a dagger and light armor as well.

Once at the fields, we are met with just two guys, a tall guy with long black hair and another guy with long red hair who seems to be struggling to kill a simple monster, and a few boars here and there.

"Alright! This looks awesome! But, you are going to have to teach me how to fight." The short girl says the last part with a bit of a pout.

"Alrighty, then. Watch me closely and copy what I do." I chuckle and then start the tutorial for her, practicing on the pig-like monsters.

 _After about an hour, she finally got it and was, basically, a professional._

"This is AWESOME!" She laughs and charges up a sword skill. Her dagger glows light red and then she stabs it straight through a boar.

I clap, "I know right? Wanna have a little competition? Loser has to pay for dinner." I chuckle and nudge her shoulder lightly.

"Oh, you're on!" She laughs. "But, first let me get changed in the real world. It's getting pretty late." She says looking up at the sky, since the in game weather matches real world weather.

"Alright. I'll wait for you here." I smile and give her a small kiss on the head.

She blushes a little then opens the menu to log out. "Huh… that's strange… the log out button isn't there."

"Oh, come on. I get you didn't read the guide, but you should at least be able to find the log out button." I say with a bit of a know-it-all voice.

"Of course I know where the log out button is! Don't be an ass! It isn't there!" she says angrily and giving me the "scary look."

"Sure it isn't," I open the menu to prove her wrong, only to find out that she was serious. "Oh… uh oh..."

"Believe me now, meanie?" she kicks my foot softly.  
"Yeah- But, don't worry! It's probably just a small bug. They'll fix it soon." I smile in a reassuring way.

 _Suddenly, the bell tower in the town of beginnings starts going off._

"Huh? What's that- ?!" I start to speak but then stop when I see a light rise from beneath us.

"Woah what's going on!?" she screams as we suddenly get teleported back to the town square, surrounded by people and more teleporting in as well for some odd reason.

We both look around frantically, looking for any type of clue that could help us figure out the reason we are back here. Our search was interrupted abruptly, though, because of some random guy in the whole crowd yelling "WOAH! WHAT'S THAT!?" at the sky and point at a red hexagon with a warning message on it.

Everyone's eyes immediately dart to the sky when the hexagon multiplies, filling the whole sky with red. Once the sky gets filled with red hexagons, blood starts to ooze out of the cracks between them, slowly taking the form of a large hooded figure.

Erin and I gulp from the disgusting sight as the figure takes form.

The hooded figure then stretches out its arms and speaks. "Attention players," the figure said, "Welcome to my world!"

Who is this guy… the only person worthy to say that is Akihiko Kayaba. Wait a minute!

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba," the hooded figure continues, finally introducing itself. "And as of this moment, I am the only person in control of this world."

People in the crowd start murmuring to each other, some people thinking he is just welcoming us to this game, others thinking he just wants to look like a god so we can kiss up to him. Erin and I just stay quiet though, being very interested in what he has to say.

"I am sure you have already noticed the log out button missing from the menu. This is not a defect, I repeat, this is not a defect of the game."

Wait what?! Erin and I gasp at what he just stated, our moods changing from curious to thinking of ways to get out.

Some people begin to yell, "WHAT THE HELL!? WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?" and then an excuse of why they need to leave the game. Some people try to leave the town square, thinking this is just a joke, but they sadly cannot thanks to an invisible force field keeping them in.

Kayaba continues on, "This is a feature of Sword Art Online. You cannot log out of SAO yourselves, and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. If this should be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

What…. Nonono… please let this be a joke! I try to gulp down my fear, trying to replace it with the thought that this is just a nightmare.

"Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and attempted to remove the NerveGear." The insane prick continues on. "As a result, two-hundred and thirteen players have been eliminated, both from the game and the real world, forever." He somehow says this with a calm voice. HE REALLY IS CRAZY!

"As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, even the deaths. Thus you can assume the fear of someone taking off the helmet is now minimal." He says and screens suddenly appear around him of different news stations, each reporting exactly what Kayaba said. "I hope this relaxes you a bit as you attempt to clear the game." HAHAHA! HE EXPECTS US TO RELAX AFTER THAT?!

"And I want you to remember this clearly, there is no longer a way to revive someone in the game. If your HP drops to 0, your avatar will be lost forever, and simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."

Oh god, no, please. I look over at Erin who is now almost in tears, freaking out over all of this.

"There is only one means of escape, to complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the floor boss, then you may advance to the next floor. You must do this until you get to Floor 100, and defeat the final boss to clear the game."

My jaw drops. Is that even possible?

"Finally, I have added a little gift to each of your inventories." He says, continuing.

Erin and I, and everyone else in the town, open up their inventories and look at the item. It's a _Mirror_? Strange. We equip it anyways and look into it. Suddenly we get a tingly sensation and are overtaken by white light again for a moment, giving us no time to even yell before the light goes away. Everyone now looks like their real life selves.

I am back to being only 5' 10" with my longish blonde hair and my skinny body, and Erin is back to having medium, black hair and being short.

We look at each other and gasp as we see our real faces.

"Right now, you are probably wondering 'Why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all of this?'" he said, continuing on with his long speech. "The answer is simple: I created this world so I could intervene in it."

Well some people were right, he does want to be a god.

"And now it is complete. This ends the official tutorial to Sword Art Online. Good luck, players." He finishes at last, disappearing from sight and the sky going back to normal.

For a moment, it was dead silent… and then, a girl that sounded not a day over the age of 12, screamed at the top of her lungs, sending everyone into hysteria and panic, pushing each other around and yelling the most vulgar things.

I grabbed Erin's hand and tugged it, "Come on!" I shout over the sound of people yelling and start dashing out of the town as fast as I could with her, doing my best to keep a calm and reassuring face.

"We have to get to the next town as soon as possible, before anyone else does!" I say as I turn a corner, going onto the rough, dirt road of the fields.

I sprint as fast as I can with her, both of us unsheathing our blades as we see two wolves hop out in front of us. We charge up our sword skills and then get shot forward, slicing straight through the wolves and killing them.

"WE HAVE TO BEAT THIS GAME!" I yell as the wolves burst into crystals behind us, we are still sprinting as fast as we can.

 **A/N: Happy Friday, Everyone! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and you stay for many more to come in. Also, I will try my best to post one everyday. :D**


	3. Chapter 3, Demon's blade

**Chapter 3**

 _Last time!_

"WE HAVE TO BEAT THIS GAME!" I yell as the wolves burst into crystals behind us, we are still sprinting as fast as we can.

 _This time!_

After an hour of straight sprinting and grinding through monsters, we make it to the next town, sheathing our weapons and surprised to see only one guy there, equally out of breath as us so he must have gotten there at the same time as us.

"Erin, we should go find the inn and get some food and rest." I give the idea and she nods.

"Good idea… I could really use that to think about what just happened…" she says in a bit of a quiet voice.

I sigh then grab her hand and start leading her to the inn near the center of town. Her anxiety was already bad in the real world. I can only imagine how bad it must be here.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. I promise. We will get out of here one way or another." I smile at her and she smiles back slightly, giving a small nod.

We enter the inn and are greeted by a very happy NPC innkeeper. "Hi! Welcome to _Counting Sheep inn_!"

The NPC somehow makes me a feel a bit happier, but at the same time kind of annoyed because it doesn't have to worry about death. It isn't programmed to. I then walk up to the NPC, "Hello, I'd like to rent a room here and get some food."

"That will be 10 col for the room, sir." The male NPC gives a warming smile and I pay the col, surprised of how cheap it was but it will surely add up. It would be wise to buy a player home later. It then gives me a key.

I nod to Erin, "Here's the key. I will meet you up in the room." I give her the key and she gives me hug before heading up.

I buy some food and then join her up there.

I notice her sitting on the bed with her face in her hands and I go to her side to comfort her, consoling her for a couple minutes and reassuring her that it will be okay before giving her a piece of bread.

We then fall asleep, both equally tired from everything what's happened that day.

 _The next morning_

I wake up at around 10 in the morning, Erin does as well. Though, we would have been asleep for longer if it hadn't been for the light passing through window.

We sit up lazily, both equally disappointed after realizing that yesterday wasn't just a dream.

"I guess if we really are going to be stuck in here for a while, we should make the best of it. Let's have fun today. We can go do a quest together." I say and smile at her, after a while of silence.

She nods and smiles, agreeing with what I say. "Let's kick some ass!"

I chuckle and hop out of bed, leading us both downstairs and outside to search for an easy quest. After about 20 minutes, we find one and the quest giver appears to be an old woman.

"Hello. Please help me. My son wandered into the forest a couple days ago and hasn't returned." The old woman says and a quest box appears in front of me.

I click the blue circle button and the quest objective appears in the top right hand corner of the HUD.

 _Quest: Missing Son_

 _Objective: Find the old woman's son in the forest._

 _Reward: 2,000 Exp, 1,000 Col, a healing crystal, a teleport crystal, and some materials for cooking and crafting._

"Alright! - Oh wait, I almost forgot. I need to send you a party invite so we can do the quest together." I chuckle and open up the menu and send her an invite.

She laughs, "Stupid." Then accepts the invite. Erin eyes the quest that just popped up in the right hand corner of her screen, and my character name that just showed up under hers along with my health bar. "This seems easy enough."

I nod, "Mm hum, come on." I smile and start leading us towards the forest, unsheathing my sword to prepare for fighting. Also, I just look like a bad ass when I hold it!

Erin does the same, also looking like an awesome rouge with her hood up.

After only a couple minutes of walking through the forest, we are already attacked by a pack of 8 wolves. They get the jump on us though and manage to get a few bites into us, bringing our health down into the orange.

"Gah!" We yell at the same time and put our swords up to guard us.

We charge up our sword skills at the same time and swing our swords horizontally, slicing through some of the wolves and bringing their health down quite a bit.

I get in an offensive stance and jump forward and quickly slash my longsword at the wolves, moving in all types of acrobatic ways.

Erin moves even more elegantly thanks to her having the lighter weapon. But what her dagger doesn't have in strength, it sure makes up in speed as she stabs, shanks, and slices through wolves with particular ease.

We only get nipped once or twice before killing off the last wolf together. We grabbed around 200 Col from the fight and the same amount of ExP, only one more monster away from leveling up for both of us.

"That was awesome, but let's be more careful from now on. Keep your ears peeled and your eyes open, you know?" I say.

"I'm pretty sure it's the other way around, doofus…" she chuckles.

"G-gah! Well! Whatever!" I growl and continue walking. Erin just silently mocks me and chuckles.

 _30 minutes later, after searching for quite a long time and fighting through wave after wave of wolf packs with impressive skill._

Erin is the one that spots the kid this quest was required to find. "Look! There he is!"

My eyes immediately dart over to the kid that was for some reason curled up under a tree with his head in between his legs and playing with the grass, humming silently. "Great eye!"

We rush over to the kid at the same time and Erin leans down next to him. "Hey, we're here to help you get back to your mom."

I'm standing behind her and the kid with my sword resting on my shoulder, just observing.

The kid stops playing in the grass after that comment and stops humming as well.

"Hey, uh, you okay?" she asks, stuttering a little.

The boy slowly lifts his head up and his face becomes visible. Where there would usually be eyes, there were black holes, his mouth was more of a tiny cut out circle with tiny sharp teeth lining around it, and to top it off, his face was dark grey and splattered with blood.

Erin jumps back to my side when suddenly four health bars appear next to kid's head. The quest objective also gets updated.

 _Quest objective: Kill the demon child and retrieve the necklace around its neck._

I gulp as it floats in the air a little and its eyes start glowing red. A scythe suddenly appears in its right hand and screeches at us. A name also appears above the four health bars, _Vincent Demonshire_.

"Crap… right when I thought this wasn't going to be a horror game." I get in an offensive stance with my sword held almost like I am going to thrust it forward.

Erin gets into a little bit of a mix between a boxer stance and a karate stance. "Not the best time to be joking around!"

I nod, "Right. Same fighting style as always. We switch in and out." She nods in agreement.

The demon kid charges at us with its scythe at the ready to attack. We charge right back at it, me going ahead a little more so it attacks me. When the demon starts to swing at me, I swing back at the same time. Our weapons clash and we parry each other back.

"SWITCH!" I yell and Erin dashes forward and lands 4 very quick slices into its chest with a sword skill, bringing its first health bar down half way. The monster then changes its target and swings at Erin. Erin parries the attack like I did and I charge forward with my sword skill ready, and I slice at the thing's chest, making a large X shape.

"Excellent! Continue like this until it gets down to its last health bar!" she says and that is exactly what we do, bringing more and more of its health down each time and rather quickly until it is on its last health bar.

Once it gets on its last health bar it shrieks in rage and its eyes burst with a red aura. It charges at us again, but this time a lot quicker and it slashes at both of us at the same time.

"WATCH OUT!" I yell and we both put up our weapons in a defensive way before it hits and instead of parrying we just get into a clash.

I growl and use all of my strength to end the clash and stun the beast for a moment.

"Come on! This is our only chance! Let's finish this together!" I yell and she yells back "Alright!"

We then both charge forward, both charging up our sword skills and yelling at the top of our lungs, and we stab our weapons all the way through the demon's chest and then slicing them out from both sides. Its health then reaches 0 and gives one last shriek of agony before bursting into colorful crystals and a _Congratulations!_ window appears above where it got killed.

We both breathe heavily, both exhausted from the tough fight. We both get enough ExP to level up twice and enough Col to buy brand new sets of armor and weapons, but I got the _final hit bonus item_. I accept it and smile.

"Good job, lovely." I smile and kiss her.

"Yeah, you did great too. Your plan did a great job in keeping us alive." She chuckles.

"It's because I am a genius," I say with a smug look.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." She playfully punches me.

I spot the necklace that we were supposed to retrieve and I pick it up off the ground. It enters my inventory and I smile. "Let's finish this quest and go back to the inn to have some late lunch." I chuckle and start walking out of the forest.

"Good idea." She says with a smirk and starts following me. Both of our weapons have already been sheathed.

After a couple minutes, we get out of the forest and we go back to the lady that gave us the quest and we turn it in and receive our reward, though the lady did seem very upset at the news.

We go back to the inn and sit at a table near the window and we look at the level up menu. I put a lot of my skill points into agility, and a few into strength, defense, and health. Erin does something just as equal that I did with my points.

 _Later that day after late lunch_

We are still sitting at the table near the window, a lot more people are there now.

"Oh! I almost forgot that I got the last bonus item!" I chuckle and open my inventory.

"Let's see it," she smiles at my enthusiasm. For some reason she seems happier here. That's good though!

I look at the item and see it is a longsword; _Demon's blade._ I equip it and pull the blade from its sheath and we both look at it in awe. It's blade is long, dark, and elegant and the center of the hilt has a skull head on it.

"Woah…."

 **A/N: Woah, that was long! haha. See ya guys in the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4, For Honor

**Chapter 4**

 _Last time_

I look at the item and see it is a longsword; Demon's blade. I equip it and pull the blade from its sheath and we both look at it in awe.

"Woah…."

 _This time_

It's the day after the events of receiving the _Demon's blade_ , early in the morning, and I am woken up abruptly by the sound of shuffling and steel coming in contact with wood. I sit up to see that it was just Erin, who looked as if she had already been up for a couple minutes.

"Look who finally decided to wake up, lazy. We got up so early yesterday to do a quest, which you got an awesome sword from, and you won't even wake up so we can do a quest I want to do." Erin says with a little bit of sarcasm in her voice.

"Hey, don't antagonize me! We never made a plan to get up extra early so we can do a quest." I say sitting up and crossing my arms.

"Well, it's a plan now! So get up, lazy butt!" she says jokingly as she flips her dagger up and down in the air.

"Grr, fine." I get up and get ready submissively, quickly equipping my armor and sword, then walking downstairs to the ground floor of the inn.

"Alright, I get to choose the quest today. Follow me." She says, somehow getting to the bottom of the stairs before me. I nod with an "Ok" and then start following her as she leads me out of the inn and through the town. She looks around for a quest giver with a smile on her face.

After about 10 minutes, she finally finds a quest giver. This one seemed to be a large, overweight guy wearing a kimono and had long hair that was partially put into a bun on the back of his head; he looks a lot like a sumo, I'm just going to call him jumbo.

Once we approach Jumbo, he starts talking. "Hello, travelers. Please aid me in my time of need. Monsters have seized my home and taken my wife as hostage." The man says, owning a deep, Japanese accent. Great, now he seems like a samurai.

Erin nods, "Sure! We can help!" she says, accepting the quest and it appears in the top right hand corner of the HUD.

"Yes. We must save his famiry! FOR HONOR-U!" I say, mocking the quest giver's accent.

"Oh, shut it." She pushes me, laughing.

I chuckle and smile. I look at the quest.

 _Quest: In My Time of Need_

 _Objective: Rescue the man's wife and kill the monsters in his home._

 _Reward: 4,000 Exp, 2,000 Col, 2 healing crystals, 1 teleport crystal, and a rare weapon._

"Oo, a rare weapon. This one is yours since I got the last hit bonus yesterday."

"Thanks. Come on. Let's do this!"

I nod and unsheathe my sword, she takes out her dagger. We start sprinting to the man's small home, which has its windows broken and its door kicked down, most likely because of the monsters that have broken into it. Before we can even reach the front door though, four, level 6 wolves hop out of the two broken front windows and they charge at us, snarling.

"Alright! Action already!" I charge up a horizontal sword skill and swing my sword as fast as I can at two of them, making 2 large red particle slices at the wolves on the right, making them burst into blue crystals.

Erin smirks as the other two charge her left, but right before they try to bite at her she dodges out of the way and charges up a sword skill. She turns around and stabs the blade straight through the back of one wolf and slices it open, then she charges at the last and darts forward like a bullet, slicing straight through the beast and causing massive amounts of damage. She lands with a roll and the two wolves burst into crystals behind her.

"Get ready to fight some more!" I yell with a thumbs up as I continue charging towards the house. Erin quickly joins me.

She jumps in through one of the windows, with a sword skill charged, and she stabs her dagger through a wolf inside the home and continues fighting the monsters inside. There are about 16 wolves inside, and it seems like they will be attacking in waves.

I charge up another one of sword skills and charge through the front door at full speed with my sword raised above my head. Once inside, I thrust my sword forwards and stab the blade through one wolf. I pull the blade out, sideways, and I slice through two other wolves. The four we have just killed together burst into blue crystals.

The rest of the wolves charge at us and we dash right back at them. Erin, insanely quick, starts to slice and shank at the wolves, moving so quick it is hard to keep up with her tiny dagger as it creates dozens of red injuries on her half of the wolves. I move just a bit slower, spinning and cutting through my half with incredible skill, causing massive amounts of damage with fewer cuts than Erin's dagger; damn this sword was amazing!

After a few moments of fighting, the boars we were fighting burst into blue crystals and we stand up. "ALRIGHT! THAT WAS AWESOME! WOO!" I yell, laughing.

"Yeah, but look at our health." She says with a bit of relieved sigh.

I look and our health bars have dropped dangerously low into the red region. I gulp, "Yeah… we should be more careful from now on." I chuckle nervously.

"Yeah, and buy some new armor." She says the idea as if it was obvious… which it was…

"Let's do that when we get back to town. But, first, let's complete the quest and get you that 'rare weapon.'" I smile and she nods back in agreement, with a smirk.

We look around for the woman that we needed to save, only to find her hiding in a closet in the back of the home. After a brief explanation of who we are, and convincing the lady that we aren't with the monsters that attempted to murder her, she comes willingly and we lead her back to Jumbo, that samurai guy.

"Thank you very much for helping me and my wife. Please, accept this sword as a token of our gratitude." The man picks up the sword, which was leaning against the log behind him and was wrapped in cloth, and holds it in front of Erin. He carefully unwraps the blade and it appears to be a beautiful, ornate katana, excellently crafted and it has an _Oni_ symbol engraved into the handle. Erin happily accepts the sword, obviously amazed at how awesome it is, and we complete the quest. We each level up again and we dish out our earned points to where we want them to go.

Erin equips the sword and it rests very nicely on her back in a sheath that was generated by the game.

"Awesome, now we both have sexy swords." I chuckle and smile.

She smiles and chuckles, "I had a lot of fun, Sean. In fact, even though we are technically trapped in this game and may actually die, I am happy."

I stare at her, smiling widely at that.

"Let's do another quest, okay? I wanna test this bad boy out!" she says very enthusiastically and I nod.

"Alright! That's the spirit! LET'S GO!"

 **A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this one, so much action! AND ERIN GETS A SICK NEW SWORD! AWESOME! things seem to be going pretty good for our heroes. stay tuned for next time. I may be introducing some canon characters into this story. and maybe some characters of my own imagination. WHO KNOWS! YOU WILL HAVE TO FIND OUT! :D**


	5. Chapter 5, The Meeting

**Chapter 5**

 _Last time_

Let's do another quest, okay? I wanna test this bad boy out!" she says very enthusiastically and I nod.

"Alright! That's the spirit! LET'S GO!"

 _This time_

It's been a month since this game started and already 2,000 people have died. In that time though WE did not give up or get discouraged and we, without even knowing, worked our hardest to level up, not changing our happy attitudes a bit, even if almost everyone else was freaking out. We also did, in fact, buy new armor since that was an issue we REALLY needed to solve; now they are more cloak like, so Erin and I look more rouge-ish then before. As for our weapons, they didn't change at all since we couldn't find anything better, though that was probably because weapon shops don't exactly have rare weapons on hand, then that would just make them common I suppose.

Apart from all the deaths, and an update on our level, weapons, and armor, a group has finally found the boss of this floor. The leader of the group has decided to schedule a meeting to discuss how to defeat the boss. After hearing this news, we definitely had to go. That then brings us to here, at the meet place in a colosseum like area. Everyone was sitting in the stands except for one man who was standing in the center of the colosseum. He is tall, around my height, has blue hair, and has a sword and shield, which is actually quite common in this game to have. We guessed that this was _Diavel_ , the leader of the group that found the boss room, because why would some random guy be standing in the middle of colosseum during a meet?

We sat near the middle of the stands, where most of the people were because we wanted to make some friends; we may not seem like it, but we are social people, socially awkward people at that. A couple rows above us was a girl wearing a red cloak, which hid her face and whole upper torso, and a guy with short black hair that has what appears to be the starting clothes; he must be crazy skilled, or just plain crazy.

Diavel starts speaking, "Okay, people. Now that everyone is here, let's get started!" straight to the point, I like that. "So, anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming. Good to see you. My name is Diavel, and in this game, my job is known as 'knight!'" okay… there are no jobs in this game, but I can roll with that. Sometimes I like to think I am a bad-ass assassin or whatever.

Some people laugh at what he said though and mock him, saying that there is no job system in the game, which is technically true.

"You guys wanna hear this or not?" Diavel says silencing the crowd. "Right, anyway, here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today." Everyone puts on a face of shock and murmur to each other, finally realizing that this meeting isn't a joke. Me and Erin just smirk though because we're cool like that.

"First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to floor two. The next step is, we have to tell everyone waiting in the town of beginnings that it is possible to beat this game." He says, continuing his meeting. "Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree, or not?"

The people that attended look at each other, nodding and mentally agreeing at what he said, some people even start clapping and whistling.

"Okay! Glad to hear you're all with me on this! Now, let's figure out how to beat the boss! First off, we'll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group, made up of multiple parties." Diavel says this first part of his plan and people already start to socialize and start making their groups.

The black hair kid above us looks around frantically for someone to form a party with and the red cloaked girl doesn't move at all. We, however, smile and stand up; being the social butterflies we are, this should be a piece of cake. But, boy were we wrong. Most of the people there have already formed their parties, except for a very small group of people.

Two short girls, only a little taller than Erin, one with short red hair and one with really long silver hair, hop down beside us out of nowhere. Their faces match almost perfectly, almost like twins, and their choice of armor and weapons didn't change a bit either. The only difference between the two was the color of their hair and armor, and their weapon of choice. "Hey, there! My name's _Fiena_!" the one with red hair speaks first. She has a short, curved sword, kind of similar to a _Wazakashi_.

"And my name is _Izalea_!" the one with silver hair soon introduces herself. She has a more regal weapon; a rapier.

"We're sisters!" Fiena soon says, explaining why they are so familiar.

"We couldn't help but notice that you are a couple members short. Mind if we join your party?" Izalea says in a bit of a formal manner.

"Oh, sure! We'd appreciate that a lot." Erin quickly answers, cutting me off completely from saying something sarcastic. She sends the two a party invite and they gladly accept.

"Excellent. That only leaves us to find two more members." Erin says, perhaps maybe a little too pumped.

"Well, we could always have black hair and red cloak join our party. I just hope their social skills are made up for in combat." I say pointing to the two above us.

"Good idea. Why don't you go and invite them to the group." Erin pats me on the back and urges me towards them.

"Okay. On it!" I say and then hop up to the two with a smile on my face.

They notice me before I even get to them and they just stare as I approach them. "Hey, you two. You seem to be about four members for a full party. Well, you're in luck, because I just so happen to have the four you desperately need. How about you join my party and we can work together?" they just give me a weird look because of my awkwardness; not exactly what I was looking for.

"Uh, sure. We'll join your party. Does that sound okay with you?" the black haired one speaks up and looks at the cloaked girl next to him when he asks the last part. She just gives a simple nod, clearly not a woman of many words.

"Great! I'll send you two a party invite." I say and open up my menu and send them both a party invite, in which they accept it. Their names now appear under Fiena's and Izalea's, appearing in this order in the top left corner of the HUD.

 _Sjaer_

 _Auechols_

 _Fiena_

 _Izalea_

 _Kirito_

 _Asuna_

Cool names, in my opinion. "Hey! They accepted the invite! Come up here, guys!" I yell back down to Fiena, Izalea, and Erin, waving them up here. I hear a small chuckle come from Kirito.

They quickly come up and sit down next to me. "Question," Fiena says, "how do you pronounce your usernames?"

"Oh, uh, the correct pronunciations are Suh-jare and Ow-chuh-ools. But, please just call us by our real names, Sean and Erin. It's easier." I say and they all nod.

Diavel starts talking again when everyone gets partied up, "Alright, seems like everyone's teamed up! Now, then-"

Everything was going pretty good until, of course, someone has to ruin it.

"Hold up a second!" a short man with orange spiky hair at the top of the stands yells loudly, then jumps all the way down to Diavel. "My name's Kibaou, got that? Before we take on the boss, I wanna get something off my chest." He says standing up straight and facing the people in the stands, "We all know about the two-thousand people that have died so far, yeah? Well, some of you need to apologize to them, right now!" he points at the crowd. The people in the stands start murmuring.

"Kibaou, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones that are ex-beta testers, right?" Diavel says to him.

"Of course, I mean them!" Kibaou yells back in an 'it's obvious' tone. "The day this stupid-ass game started, the beta guys just vanished, right? They didn't start as beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests, too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time they've ignored us like we're nothing." He growls, "Hell, I bet there are some of them here! Come on out beta-testers! We should make them apologize to us, and we should make them all give out their money and the items they've got!" he folds his arms, "They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us. Why should we?"

Kirito seemed to be struggling at this point for some reason.

"Can I say something?" a deep voice says from the crowd. It is owned by a rather tall and muscular black man that wielded a large double bladed axe. He stands up and walks down to Kibaou, towering over him and putting him in his shadow. Kibaou looks up at him, obviously intimidated. "Hey, my name's Agil. Kibaou, right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page. You're saying the ex-beta testers should be blamed for rookies' deaths, because they didn't help them, and you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. Did I leave anything out?"

"N-no, you didn't." Kibaou says stuttering.

Agil pulls out a small leather book and shows it to Kibaou, "The item store hands these out for free. It's a guide book. You got one, didn't you?" well, I didn't grab a guide book, but I sure as hell don't need one since I read the official and full guide book, explaining everything, back and front already.

"Sure, I got one. So, what about it?" Kibaou says.

"You know who was handing these out? The ex-beta testers." Agil explains and everyone gasps. Kibaou scoffs and Agil turns to look back at the crowd, "Listen up. Everyone had equal access to this information, even so, lots of players still died. Now, I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here because I want to learn from those players' deaths. I'm here because I want to learn how to beat the boss." He then turns back to Kibaou, who gives him a threatening look before going to the stands and sitting down with his arms crossed. Agil sits next to him and Kirito gives a sigh of relief.

"Okay, can we get back to the meeting now?" Diavel asks and everyone nods. "For info on the boss, it's all in here. The latest issue of the guide book you've just heard about." He holds up his own guide book and people gasp again; how could info on the boss already be in the book if the boss was just found today? "According to the book, the boss's name is _Illfang the Kobold Lord_. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the _Ruin Kobold Sentinels_. Illfang carries an axe and a buckler, he has four health bars, and when the last one turns to red, he switches to curved sword-type weapon called a _Talwar_. He can change his patterns of attack, too." He closes the guide book, "That's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of the loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the ExP, and whoever gets an item, gets to keep it. Any objections?" he looks amongst the crowd.

My party is smirking at this point, all except for Asuna, who is basically the black sheep of this group.

"Good! We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning! Meeting adjourned, people!" he waves everyone off. Some people leave and some people stay and talk, my group was one of the people that actually stayed and talked, and Kibaou actually apologizes for what he said.

"This is gonna be awesome, guys. I know it." I smirk as I talk to my group.

 **A/N: Ah! cant wait for the next chapter! THEY FIGHT ILLFANG! :D**


	6. Chapter 6, Kirito the awesome?

**Chapter 6**

 _Last time_

"This is gonna be awesome, guys. I know it." I smirk as I talk to my group.

 _This time_

After a night of resting and a good long while to talk with my group, minus Asuna because she barely speaks, we were ready for the boss fight today. We got up early morn, rushing to the meet up because we wanted to be the first to be there and get the fighting started; it was a bit strange how much our group thinks alike. On the way to the meet up, we started going over our battle plan as well.

Once at the meet up, we soon realize that maybe we came a bit early, for not even Diavel was there; in fact, we came exactly four hours before the time it was scheduled to meet up and very few people were even awake. We chuckle nervously, "Maybe we came a bit early, guys. But, that's okay! That just gives us more time to relax and talk about our plan, and maybe we can even upgrade our stuff." I smile.

"Good plan. Izalea and I could really use a weapon upgrade." Fiena says.

"Yeah, and I need to go stock up health potions." Kirito says.

"I need to get some better armor." Asuna says, still not comfortable with showing her face, but somehow comfortable with speaking with us now.

"Sean and I will just walk around town, I suppose. We'll meet back here when it is thirty minutes until the boss fight." Erin says putting her hands behind her back and putting on a serious face.

We all nod and go our separate ways until it is time to meet up back here.

 _4 hours later_

We all come back to the meet up and notice that some parties are already there, all of the parties actually, including Agil's, Kibaou's, Diavel's, and the few others. "Looks like we weren't the first ones. That's okay, though. At least they haven't left yet." I say looking around at everyone.

"Alright, everyone. Who's ready to take the hike to the boss room!?" Diavel yells out the question as he pumps his fist into the air. Everyone cheers in response. "Alright! Here we go! Also, I recommend that you go over battle strategies on the way there." He says and turns around and starts leading everyone to the boss room.

People talk amongst their groups about their battle plan as they walk, everyone else does the same, including my team.

 _Several hours later, now right outside the door of the boss room. Many monsters had to be slain before even getting to this point._

"Holy. Fucking. Shit! Who knew that a boss dungeon could be crawling with this many monsters!" I yell, a little out of breath. My party chuckles a little, except Asuna.

"Alright, everyone! Rest up a couple minutes. You need to be prepared for this battle." Diavel says, putting his sword into the ground. Everyone does exactly that and sits down on the ground, pulling out food they packed and eating.

We sit down on the floor and cross our legs. "So, while you all were going off and doing your separate things, Sean and I went and bought lunch for everyone." Erin says and grabs the food from her inventory and gives one to each of us.

"You're my savior, you two! I'm starving!" Fiena says and Kirito says something similar.

"Thank you, you two." Izalea says with a formal bow.

Asuna just nods and they all start eating their food, which was just the sandwiches from the inn. We also go over our battle plans one last time before we have to enter the boss room, none of us seeming too confident, but still showing faith in our skill.

After about half an hour, Diavel speaks again. "Alright, everyone. I hope you've rested up. Let's defeat this boss and show everyone that it is possible to beat this game!" Everyone cheers in excitement to that and pump their weapons in the air. Diavel then turns around and pushes open the large doors to the boss room.

Inside was dark, but at the very end we could faintly see the silhouette of a large monster. Once we walk a bit further in, the room suddenly lights up and the beast stands up and roars, picking up its axe in the process. Its name appears and four health bars are shown under it. People somehow keep straight faces even though deep down inside they were afraid.

As if this boss didn't seem threatening enough, its sentinels come to its aid. About four of them come out and they are about half the height of the boss, which is still substantially larger than any normal human, and they are each wielding the same club-type weapon. They all start sprinting at everyone.

"CHARGE!" Diavel yells and everyone starts sprinting forwards towards the sentinels except for Diavel's group, which go up and start hitting the boss. My group picks one sentinel and we take turns attacking it, barely giving it a chance to make one hit on us.

I can now see the skills of Fiena, Izalea, Kirito, and Asuna. Fiena is swift and very agile, hopping side to side as she slices at the sentinel. Izalea has a unique way of fighting as she pierces and slices at mainly the weak points on the beast, even though she is using a rapier, she can even use it as a slashing weapon. Kirito is very fast, with almost the same exact fighting style as me but a little looser, and his smaller sword allows him to utilize his speed even better. As for Asuna, even though she doesn't talk much she sure does make up for in skill as she quickly pierces at the sentinel's head, moving so fast that you can't even see the point of her rapier.

After a couple minutes of doing this, and having help from Agil's group, we defeat the sentinel. I give my group and Agil's a little thumbs up.

"SWITCH WITH US, QUADRANT B!" Diavel says as his group takes out the first health bar of the boss and runs back to fight the sentinels. Kibaou's group now rushes forward and starts fighting the boss.

My group then moves on to the next sentinel and Erin and I take our turn to get some action. We charge up our sword skills and then rush at one sentinel, taking turns in quick succession to slice at the beast, going so fast that its health bar quickly reaches 0 in under a minute and it bursts into blue crystals. Our group looks in awe, but quickly has to stop as we all move onto the next sentinel and help Agil's party.

Once the Illfang's health bar gets to its second, Diavel yells out: "QUADRANT C! SWITCH IN!" and Kibaou's group rushes back to the remaining sentinels to fight. Agil's group then breaks away from battle and rushes at the boss. Agil uses his large, double bladed axe so smoothly; it really suits him.

We then fight alongside Kibaou, and somehow, if I dare say it, we work pretty well together in a team. Diavel's, Kibaou's, and my group fight excellently as we take out the last two sentinels. At the same time, Agil gets a perfectly placed sword skill on the boss and manages to bring it to its last health bar and in the red region.

"COME BACK, QUADRANT C! I GOT THIS!" Diavel yells as he rushes forward in front of everyone with a sword skill charged up. The boss tosses aside its buckler and axe and pulls out its last weapon. He smirks as he charges at the boss.

Kirito gasps, "WAIT, DIAVEL! GET OUT OF THERE! THAT'S NOT A TALWAR! THAT'S AN ODACHI!" but it was too late when he said that. The boss swings the odachi at Diavel before he can even reach him, leaving a large red gash across his body and making him tumble on the ground. Kirito runs to his aid and I notice them talking.

The boss then starts charging at Diavel and Kirito, but, out of nowhere, Asuna jumps in and attacks the boss with a sword skill, making it switch its target to her. It then swings its weapon down, but right before it hits Asuna, Agil jumps in and parries the blow back with his axe.

I then see Diavel burst into white crystals and a mortified look on Kirito's face, as if he had just heard the most unbearable thing. He stands up angrily with his sword drawn and rushes at the beast with Asuna. I take this as a sign to help, since they are technically now my friends in a way, and I rush at the boss too and start attacking it with a series of sword skills. The rest of my group soon does the same and the rest of the people there just watch in amazement as we fight.

We go back to our original battle plan and switch in and out with quick succession as we take our turns getting as much hits as we can into the boss. Its health slowly goes down.

As it gets down to almost 0, Fiena, Izalea, Erin, Kirito and I jump back, as it is Asuna's turn. Asuna does not notice though as the boss changes its attack pattern.

"WATCH OUT, ASUNA!" I hear Kirito say and she does exactly that, not being able to dodge fully though as the boss manages to land a hit on her cloak, making its durability hit 0 and disappearing. We all are amazed for half a second at how amazing she looks, blown away that someone with those looks would own the skills she has.

Kirito then rushes forward in attempt to help her and they kind of take on the rest themselves. Together, they rush at the boss and plunge their swords into it and drag their blades along it as they sprint to the other side, yelling as loud as they can, and bring its health down to 0. They then sheathe their swords and Illfang bursts into glitter like crystals.

The room then goes dim again and a huge congratulations boss appears where the boss was. Everyone starts cheering as loud as they can and smiling. Kirito even got the last attacking item.

"That was amazing swordsmanship, Kirito. You did it." Agil says.

"No..." Kirito just says back in kind of a sad way, clearly thinking about the one person that died, but I guess no one else notices.

"Yeah, man. You did it! You were awesome!" Fiena says and pumps her fist, triggering the crowd to cheer in agreement and clap for kirito. But, of course, someone had to ruin the good mood.

"Stop cheering!" Kibaou yells at everyone. They all look at him with a very confused face. "Why'd you do it, huh? Why'd you let Diavel die?"

Kirito looks back at him confused, "Let him die?"

"That's what I said! Admit it, you knew the technique the boss was gonna use. You could've told us, then Diavel would've stood a chance. He wouldn't have had to die!" Kibaou yells back at Kirito. Everyone, except my group and Asuna, murmured and looked towards Kirito.

"I know why he knew! He used to be a beta tester! Think about it, he knew the boss's attack patterns. He knew, but he kept it from us!" a random guy yells this and that slowly causes us to turn heads towards Kirito as well. "And I bet he's not the only beta tester here! Come on, show yourselves."

People start turning their heads, looking for another beta tester.

Kirito looks back down and gulps. Agil and I try to defend him, speaking for him. But, we are quickly interrupted by the sound of Kirito chuckling, as if he had lost it.

 _Hehehehehehehehe_

He stands up as he speaks, "So, you guys think I used to be a beta tester?" Kirito then looks towards everyone there. I am actually a bit confused at this.

"It's not cool to put me in the same class with those noobs." Kirito says with an almost emotionless face, but I could tell something was up.

"W-what'd you say!?" Kibaou asks loudly, almost in a threatening tone.

Kirito starts walking towards the exit, "You heard me. Most of the thousand people that scored a slot in SAO's beta were rookies. They were so green, they didn't even know how to level up. Hell, even you guys were better than they were."

Kibaou gasps and stares at Kirito as he stops right in front of him.

"But, me. I'm nothing like those guys, man. During the beta, I made it to floors that were higher than any of the other testers. That's a fact. I knew about the boss, because I fought tons of monsters with way more sword skills on higher floors. I know a bunch of other things too. More than you can imagine, more than any info-broker." He says with a smirk as he looks at Kibaou in the eyes.

"W-what the hell? If that's true then you're worse than a beta tester. You're a goddam cheater! That's what you are!" Kibaou says angrily and other people start yelling in agreement, calling him a cheater as well. The rest of my group looks around, not understanding why they would be treating him like this.

"He's a beta tester and a cheater… he's a beater!" Some random guy yells out.

"A beater. Yeah, that's good. I like that." Kirito says and everyone looks in shock. Kirito slides open his inventory and continues talking, "Okay, you can call me a beater. Just make sure you don't confuse me with those beta testers anymore." He equips the last attacking bonus, the _Cloak of Midnight_. He then smirks and starts to exit the boss room and enter floor 2.

Asuna rushes after him though once he is out of ear shot and starts to speak with him for a brief moment, nothing we can hear though. He then turns his attention away from Asuna and enters the second floor.

Asuna comes back sad and looks at us, shaking her head. We look down a bit upset. How could they say those things? He killed the boss and saved everyone else there.

Everyone starts murmuring and I look to my group and nod, notifying that we should continue on to the next floor and try our best not to let this beat us down. And that is exactly what we do.

 **A/N: #Badass #WhyIsEveryoneInSAOaDick? lol. I'll post again tomorrow! :D**


	7. Chapter 7, Birth of a guild

**Chapter 7**

 _Last time_

Everyone starts murmuring and I look to my group and nod, notifying that we should continue on to the next floor and try our best not to let this beat us down. And that is exactly what we do.

 _This time_

It's been two weeks since the boss fight on floor 1. In that time, people have gotten much more attentive and productive when it came to finding the dungeons; in fact, a group has already found the dungeon but, no one can take it on yet because no one is skilled enough or has high enough levels. My group and I have also gotten over the whole Kirito incident, and Asuna left to play solo for a while; thank god, to be honest, she was so quiet and kind of ruined the mood (no offense).

So, now we are one floor two. Fiena, Izalea, Erin, and I have bonded more in that time, becoming even more coordinated in battle and being closer than ever; literally, we now all share one inn room. Today was a big day for us, though. We finally go on a quest together!

Now, I know. You must be asking, 'So, in the two weeks you all have been together, you haven't gone on one single quest together?!' and the answer is simple. Yes. Because there is this thing called 'hunting spots' that I really think you should look into. They really work miracles. We each leveled up 3 TIMES!

But, as I was saying, today we go on our first quest. We are already at the quest giver though, who appears to be a little girl with pig tails and crying.

"Jesus. You'd think that with 'SUCH ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY' they'd at least come up with an original quest giver." I say with a roll of my eyes.

"Shut it, the girl is crying." Fiena says.

"She is also an NPC. Meaning her emotions aren't real." I respond with matter-of-fact tone.

"Shut it." Erin says to me in a demonic voice.

"OKAY! AND I AM QUIET!" I zip my mouth shut and we all look back towards the quest giver.

"P-p-please help me. My puppy ran off into the cave and he hasn't come out. Please help me." She says with a loud sob. A quest box appears in front of me and I click the blue button, accepting it. The quest specifications show up on our HUD.

 _Quest: Lost puppy_

 _Objective: Find the little girl's puppy_

 _Reward: Rare drop, 50,000 Cor, 50,000 ExP._

I turn back to Fiena, Izalea, and Erin. "Jesus, a bit much for something as easy as this, huh? Anyways, I sure am glad I don't have to actually talk to the NPCs. I can't believe we didn't figure this out until just recently." Fiena punches me for that and we all start our walk through the cave, weapons drawn.

Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that we all somehow found better weapons and armor. Looking even sexier than before, I know, it's hard to believe. We now all wear a sort of cloak with our real armor hidden beneath. As for our weapons, I have a rare, bulky, long sword that I picked off a monster drop that boosts my strength and agility by 5 points, Erin has a cool katana with an insane agility boost, Fiena has a curvy dagger with a health boost and has a very slight chance to paralyze, and Izalea just has a rapier that she bought at the market with all her Cor because apparently monsters on floor 2 are anti-rapier.

Anyway, back to where we were, walking into the cave for the quest.

"It's so dark… Do you think there is a torch we can grab-?" right as Izalea finishes her question, torches all along the wall light up, lighting up the whole cave.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" I ask as I suddenly hear the sound of dozens of shuffling feet. We stand still and on guard as we see a pack of 20 goblin like creatures rushing towards us with their weapons raised and them snarling.

I gasp, "It's like _The Hobbit_ all over again!"

"SHUT UP, SEAN!" They all yell at me and start rushing forward at the goblins.

"It's called comic relief, jerks." I mumble and rush forward as well. We all charge our sword skills at once and at the same time we all swing our weapons, taking down half of them in just one swing and our combined power. After that, Fiena and Erin rush forward at the same time and quickly slice and dice through the rest as fast as they can. Using lots of acrobatic flips and attacks.

"Nice work!" I say as I suddenly hear more coming. "You ready, Izalea? It's our turn." She nods and gets in her offensive stance, positioning her rapier so it looks as if she is about to thrust the blade forward. I get in a similar position, except have it pointed down a bit more so I can swing the blade.

Another pack of 20 goblins come up and we dash forward at the same time. Izalea shish-ka-bobs a couple, piercing them with the tip of rapier with blinding speed, taking out her half. I rush forward next, using a more tactile way of fighting as I constantly switch in and out of slashing, stabbing, and thrusting, moving smooth as water and skill fully. I soon take out my half as well.

As soon as we take out them out, I hear ANOTHER GROUP. I soon realize that this is going to be one of those quests where the enemies keep on coming until we reach our objective. "GUYS! WE HAVE TO RUSH THEM AND GET THE PUPPY! WHICH I AM ASSUMING IS AT THE END OF THIS CAVE! YOU READY!?"

"YES!" they each yell at once and we group up next to each other in a line, in our offensive stances. We see the goblins rush around the corner.

"GO!" I shout and we all rush forward at once as fast as we can with our sword skills charged.

 _About 30 minutes later_

We finally made it to the fucking dog, out of breath. Who knew this cave was so fucking huge! No wonder no one else wanted to do this infernal quest. I pick up the puppy in my arms with a grumble.

"I can't believe we fought through 20 waves of goblins just for a stinking puppy, guys."

"At least it's cute." Erin points out and pets it with a smile.

I sigh, "True. Come on, let's get this over with." I say and start leading everyone towards the exit.

Once back to the quest giver, we give her back her puppy.  
"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" the little girl hops up and down in joy and we get the _Quest completed_ box. We each get part of the reward and level up once but, I get the rare item, which was a ring named _Ultimate Bond_. And if it is worn, everyone in the group gets a vitality boost of 50 points, which is actually lifesaving in this game.

"Nice." I equip the red and gold ring and immediately everyone notices the effects. They all look at the awesome effects in awe and smile.

"Hey, Sean. We all work pretty well in a team. Maybe you'd like to start a guild so when people see us they'll remember us by something instead of just 'THOSE COOL GUYS!'" Fiena puts up the idea and I nod.

"Yeah! That's smart. From now on, we'll be known as _The Aincrad Saviors_!" I chuckle.

 **A/N: The birth of a new guild. will they make true to their name now? I guess we'll just have to find out! :D**


	8. Chapter 8, The Guardian and the Shield

**Chapter 8**

 _Last time_

"Hey, Sean. We all work pretty well in a team. Maybe you'd like to start a guild so when people see us they'll remember us by something instead of just 'THOSE COOL GUYS!'" Fiena puts up the idea and I nod.

"Yeah! That's smart. From now on, we'll be known as _The Aincrad Saviors_!" I chuckle.

 _This time_

It has been three days since the proud creation of our guild, three fun filled days at that. In those couple days we have been doing quests non-stop, and to be honest, it's annoyed quite a few people. SORRY GUYS! IF YOU ARE READING THIS!

Anyways, as for the quests, they have been mainly search and destroy type things where we had to go and clear about a bunch of monsters. I remember a very annoying one very clearly where the stupid monster just wouldn't fucking die; you know what I mean, it's that type of monster that is so weak but it just refuses death. Anyways, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah! *ahem*

On the fourth day of us starting our guild, we finally realized how strong we were. Our levels have surpassed most others quite a bit, actually. Not only that, but there were finally enough people to take on this floor boss, which is why this is quite significant.

We have already been through the whole boring meeting, this time constructed by a group of info-brokers. Unlike the last meeting, which was held by our now dead friend Diavel, this one didn't have very much _Information_. Which is annoying because the only reason for that was because the info-brokers figured out that they could make a profit off of people wanting this precious, lifesaving knowledge. Apart from that, they gave us a very brief description of the boss. Its name is _Guardian of the cave_ and it has 2 monsters guarding it.

Now, my group and I are walking through a cave with a bunch of other random players. Bored, we kick up a little conversation amongst ourselves, talking mainly about what the loot might be and our battle plan.

"So, since our battle plan has been quite successful so far, how about we stick with it but, be a little more cautious and defensive?" Izalea points out. "We are taking on a floor boss and I have much doubt that it will be like Illfang. Perhaps, it will have higher defensive stats or some secret move that it could pull on us."

"Good idea, Izalea. On a side note, what do you think the boss is going to drop?" I say, putting my hands behind my head.

"Hmmm… maybe a sword!" Erin points out.

"Maybe some armor." Fiena says.

"Maybe it's going to be a stat boost item." Izalea says.

"Those would all be hella amazing. I guess we won't know until we kill it though." I say with a cocky smirk.

"Dude, you are way too overconfident. You could die in there!" some random guy yells at me, clearly annoyed at me.

"Well, it's better to die sarcastic and happy than die a boring downer." I say in return very simply.

It then goes quiet for quite a while.

"Am I the only one bothered by the lack of monsters? This cave seems too empty-"I start to say but am interrupted by the sounds of rocks toppling behind everyone and closing off a way out. Just to make things a little worse, a dozen, creepy, stone golem creatures start coming out of the walls of the cave and rushing towards everyone with their arms flailing behind them.

"NEVERMIND, THEN!" I yell and everyone draws their swords at once and starts rushing at the golems. I dash forward with my group and together we quickly take out a golem, disregarding our battle plan since it was just a simple monster.

"These aren't as difficult as they seem." Fiena says.

"Yeah, that's only speaking for us." I say, referring to a couple guys that just got taken out by the golems. In turn, we rush to help as fast as we can, pushing the people with low health back as we start to slice and dice at the beasts with top speed.

"Erin and Fiena! Do your partner skill!" I yell, referring to a little thing that we figured out together. If you charge up two different skills with a friend, or someone in your party, at the same time, you can release it at the same time to cause double the damage of a normal sword skill.

They nod and hop back, away from everyone, and they start to charge up their partner sword skill slowly, to its max power. While they do that, me and Izalea take consecutive turns to slice and dice through golems. I fight with stupendous skill, moving like air as I use a mixture of combos of swordplay. Izalea moving with swift speeds and having pin point accuracy.

As the crowd gives us a look of awe, Fiena and Erin finally finish charging up their sword skills and yell "NOW!" as everyone automatically moves out of the way and they charge forward with insane speed, leaving behind only a trail of red. Suddenly, a big ring appears, cutting through all of the golems and killing them, in the middle of the ring was Fiena and Erin, back to back and smirking.

I nudge the guy that yelled at me earlier, "What was that about me being overconfident?"

He just stares at me with a face of shock and awe. I chuckle and pull out a health crystal and heal everyone there. I then continue to lead everyone the rest of the way, up to the entrance of the boss room.

"I'd ask if everyone was ready but, there would be no fun in that. All I'm gonna say is fight well and don't die." I say, looking up at the door and smirking. I push open the door with my free hand and the whole room inside already appears to be lit up with pots of fire all along the walls. At the very end of the room was three statues, two looked to be huge men carrying halberds and wearing very pointy armor. And the last one was what appeared to be a king, the same height as the guard statues, and wearing a little less armor and sheathing a huge sword on its waist.

The two guard statues come to life first, making a gross crunching sound as their joints slowly began functioning. Once they were completely animated to life, they give out a loud yell and hop off of their raised pedestals and land right in front of us all, causing the whole cave to shake.

"Well, then… Perhaps that defensive battle plan you were talking about, Izalea, will come in handy." I say to my group and everyone else there immediately raises up their weapons once the statues land.

Me and my group get into our defensive battle stance as the giant statues start rushing forward at us, moving not as fast I thought they would. "Guys, they're slow! We don't need to be defensive, we just have to make sure we dodge the attacks!" I yell out and we start doing dodge that.

My group goes to the one on the left ourselves and we start attacking its legs with immense strength speed, using our offensive battle plan like we usually do where we take consecutive turns attacking the monster. All the other 34 people that also came start rushing the one at the right, bringing its health down with a steady pace.

It seems these things are mainly health and attack because surprisingly its defense isn't very good and they both get taken down fairly quickly, triggering the boss the real boss to engage, of course after going through its creepy stage of becoming real and its name appearing above four health bars.

"This should be interesting." I think out loud as it unsheathes its huge sword and rushes at us, slamming it's blade into ground quickly and crushing a couple people, killing them. As for everyone else, they got out of the way just in time. It also manages to get its sword stuck in the ground somehow, which gives everyone the perfect chance to hurry up and attack it with everything they've got.

"EVERYONE ATTACK IT WHIE IT'S DOWN!" I yell and everyone does exactly that. Me and my team, however, take a much more different approach. We start sprinting up the boss's blade, going right for its head. On the way up, we charge up our group sword skill, which is basically the partner sword skill except for the whole party. Once we get close enough, we all jump at its head at the same time, slashing all at once and making dozens of huge gashes through it suddenly as burst of red, white, and black light shows up from where we were. We somehow successfully took off a huge chunk of its health, managing to bring down its health to its second health bar.

We land directly behind it and it finally manages to pull its sword out of the ground and it starts swinging around its body. Right before the blade even gets close to the people, a tall, very attractive guy with red hair and wearing light, red knight armor, steps in with his kite shield raised, protecting everyone from the blow and even managing to parry the boss. "I CAN TAKE THE HITS! YOU ALL HIT IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!" he yells at everyone.

The people then charge forward and start attacking the boss's legs again, with us helping and using very quick and acrobatic movement. Meanwhile, the guy with the shield takes every blow the boss gives, somehow that shield is protecting him. We then finally manage to bring the boss's health down to its last bar and it yells angrily and starts attacking randomly, practically flailing its arms around as it hits in every direction, sadly taking out a bunch of the people.

The guy grits his teeth after realizing his shield is practically useless now, and he lifts up his axe and starts attacking the boss as hard as he can, fighting right alongside my group. After a few minutes of us uselessly attacking its legs, the boss accidentally gets its sword stuck in the wall and tries its best to get it unstuck.

"COME ON! WE WON'T GET ANOTHER CHANCE!" I yell as me and my party charge up our sword skills, along with the red head, and dash at the boss one last time, using our battle plan. The red head gets a couple hits in first and then Fiena goes, then Izalea, then Erin, and then finally me. Each attack brings the boss's health down quite a bit but, I get the killing blow. A congratulations box appears and everyone there cheers.

My bonus item was strangely a mask of some sort, which greatly increased the party's defense stat by 40. I hold off until we get to next floor to equip it though. Right before we leave though, the red haired guy comes up to us, smiling.

"Excuse me! My name is Zankani. I saw how you all fought and I am very impressed. I was wondering if you would allow me to join your guild. I would be very honored to fight alongside such great warriors." He says with a bow.

Me and my group mentally agree and I give the man an answer. "Yes. We could use a shield bearer. Plus, you're pretty skilled yourself."

He gives me a big smile, "Really!? Thank you!" he laughs and we all chuckle at his enthusiasm.

 **A/N: A new member to The Aincrad Saviours, a cool new mask for Sean, and a butt ton of action. I wonder what will happen next? :D**

 **also, please leave a review if you have any sort of recommendation, or maybe if you just wanna be nice and leave a comment. and if you are super nice, you could make some awesome fanart. Okay, JK on the last part but, that would be hella awesome if someone did that. love you guys!**


	9. Chapter 9, A Little History

**Chapter 9**

 _Last time_

Me and my group mentally agree and I give the man an answer. "Yes. We could use a shield bearer. Plus, you're pretty skilled yourself."

He gives me a big smile, "Really!? Thank you!" he laughs and we all chuckle at his enthusiasm.

 _This time_

It's been a couple months since the boss fight of floor 2 and the welcoming of our new member, Zankani. In the passing months, 10 floors have been cleared, so now everyone resides on floor 13. After only a couple days of Zankani joining, we gave him the honorary guild cloak. Apart from that, and I am pretty sure you know by now what I am going to say, we have leveled up a whole a bunch and shared our ExP farming secret with Zankani.

"Attack it while I have it distracted guys!" Zankani yells at us to rush forward and we do so, using all our sword skills and quickly taking out the mini boss's health that we were fighting. It drops a rare shield called _Reaper's shield_. It has insanely high defense stats and has the colors of our guild, which is red and black.

I smirk and give the shield to Zankani, "Here, you go. Just like we promised. A rare shield, just for you."

He chuckles and equips it, "Thanks, all of you. I'll be sure to use it well."

We all smile warmly. "No problem, cutie." Fiena says and laughs, because that's her way of making fun of him. We all silently chuckle as Zankani's face goes red.

"As much as I would love to stay in this canyon, guys, I think we should get back to town and rest up for the day. Today was really exhausting and action filled." Erin says with a yawn.

"Yeah. Okay." I smile and kiss her head then start leading us all back to the town, occasionally running into some monsters but, we practically kill them in one swing since we are so badass.

 _An hour later_

We walk into town chuckling a little from a joke I said ten minutes before. We hear some whispers about us as we pass through the town

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention, in the months that have passed, we have made quite a name for ourselves and helped a lot of people and saved lots of lives. In return, we got love back from the people and generous offers and donations, which of course we accepted because we aren't idiots that turn down money and free blacksmith tasks. A lot of people have also asked to join, but I have had to deny all of them because they were sadly just not skilled enough.

"So, guys. What should we do for dinner?" I say as I walk backwards just so I can look at them. I also forgot to mention that I am still wearing that mask, which, if you were wondering, looks like the smiley anime hei mask.

"Pasta!" Zankani shouts out with a chuckle. He was obsessed with pasta.

"Sure. I'll pay for it." I smile and they each give me thanks.

I walk into the tavern in the town and order us a table. The man, which is not an NPC and in fact another player, nods and smiles and leads us to a table and we sit down.

"So, what do you guys want to talk about?" Erin asks, pulling her hood off.

"Well…" Izalea says. "I have a couple questions I've been wanting to ask but never bothered to because I thought you people wouldn't want to talk to me anymore if I did."

"What? No way. You're a part of this guild and you're our friend. Why would we ever do such a horrible thing?" I say quickly and reassure her that we would never leave her.

"Well… okay." She takes a deep breath. "What are you all like in the real world?"

It suddenly goes quiet. No one had really brought up that topic in a long time. I took a gulp and decided to answer first, for both me and Erin because we lived the same life in a sense.

"Me and Erin are high school graduates. Actually, when we started this game it was only one month after our graduation." I chuckle sadly, but keep smiling. "Erin worked at a coffee shop and was a reporter. I worked in graphic design. Sadly I don't get payed much so I had to save up a lot for the gear for this game."

"Oh… I'm sorry you two…" Izalea says with deep apology.

"I'll go next I suppose." Zanakini speaks up. "In the real world I'm only in the tenth grade. I kinda skipped school to play this game. And, this is probably the only time I am gonna say this, I think I would've preferred to go to school that day. Then, I wouldn't be trapped in this game in fear of dying every day. That's why I chose to have a shield, you know. Because it makes me feel a lot safer." He says with a frown, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Fiena gives him a half hug. The waiter comes over and gives us all our pasta and we start eating, not having to pay anything.

"I guess it's our turn," Fiena says and looks down really embarrassed. "In the real world, I am thirteen and Izalea is sixteen. Before this game, we kinda separated ourselves from each other. We were your stereotypical siblings; never liked each other's presence and never really wanted to be near each other." She chuckles a little. "But, ever since we started this game, we've gotten closer, literally. We finally realized that we are in this together and that we need to stick together if we wanna live…" she says the last part then gives her big sister a hug.

I smile from the heartwarming story. Can't you see how amazing this is? HAH! Just kidding. This game is awful.

"Don't worry, you guys. We will get out of this game and we will go back to our normal lives. I promise. We will beat this game together." We all smile and nod.

Zankani puts his hand in the middle of the table, "On 3!" we are confused for half a second but quickly catch on and we all put our hands in the middle.

"ONE! TWO! THREE!" we throw our hands in the air, "THE AINCRAD SAVIORS!" we all yell at once and then start laughing, the mood quickly changing back to happy.

We then finish up our food a couple hours later and we go to bed.

 **A/N: Hey, guys. sorry this one was so short. you can just think of this as a filler episode to give a brief description of our heroes' backgrounds. the reason i had to make this one short is because I have surgery in the morning and I don't really have a lot of time to type because I gotta sleep early so I can get to the appointment. Anyways, wish me luck guys! I might not be able to post tomorrow but I promise the next one will be better. :D**


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